Born at Aberdeen, 16 May 1886, eldest son of George Anderson, a landed proprietor and farmer, and his wife, *née* Morison. He was educated at Fordyce Academy, Banffshire, and at Aberdeen University, which he entered in 1904, and won gold medals both in medicine and surgery at his graduation in 1909. He then worked at Edinburgh, taking the Fellowship of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in 1912, and making postgraduate studies at Tübingen and Berlin. He had served as house physician and house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen, under Sir Henry M W Gray and Sir John Marnoch, and was also a resident at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. He was appointed to the honorary staff of the Royal Infirmary as anaesthetist in 1913, became assistant surgeon on his return from war service in 1919, and surgeon in 1935, and was also lecturer in clinical surgery at Marischal College. During the war of 1914-18 he served at first as a regimental medical officer and later was in charge of the surgical division of No 12 General Hospital in France. He was mentioned in despatches, and created OBE in 1919. After his return to Aberdeen, besides his work at the Royal Infirmary and the building up of a large private practice at 19 Queen's Road, he worked in the laboratories of the Rowett Institute for Animal Diseases. He took the English Fellowship in 1923. He was consulting surgeon to the group of municipal hospitals, and from 1928 examined for the Edinburgh Fellowship. He was an inspector of examinations for the General Medical Council. Anderson did not specialize, but he was particularly interested in neurosurgery and in thoracic surgery. He initiated a neurosurgical service at Aberdeen, and he encouraged the development of surgery in the sanatoria of north-east Scotland. He was an original member and subsequently president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and was president from 1941 to 1944 of the Association of Surgeons. He took an active part in the work of these national societies, and was widely known and held in affectionate regard by English surgeons. During the second world war he was at first surgical director of the emergency medical service, under the Department of Health for Scotland, for the north and north-east area, but quickly transferred to military service. With the rank of brigadier he did excellent work with untiring ability, as consulting surgeon to the Scottish and northern Irish commands.